Oct 5, 2008

Venti Vent

WARNING: This post is a rant and should not be taken totally seriously. It’s just past 1 AM, I can’t sleep and said what the fuck, lets write.

How often can one reach the same level of dejected rancor so many of us live during an average work day? How is it possible that we end up roaming through the pessimist’s nirvana putting up with uncomfortable situations better suited for day time soaps than what we call reality? My work experience lately can be summed up as squandering hundreds of futile work hours because of people’s indecisions, dick changes after normal work hours and the dramarama of a select crew of people who truly deserve an Emmy for their winning performances each and every day.

Thinking straight for a second, don’t you see how funny one’s personal dilemmas and little would be wartime diatribes become with what the world and its economy are going through. I was thinking the other day about a post I wrote one or maybe even two years ago about how the economy was going to shit and how so many people I knew were struggling to find a job and how things seemed to be getting tougher and tougher only to have someone post a comment about how the NY Times and other respectable publications clearly demonstrated that things were actually getting better and that there was nothing to worry about and that I should pretty much shut my fucking mouth up because I was some ignorant liberal that didn’t read the news, didn’t take my vitamins and pretty much operated best when ranting scatologically and using elaborate descriptions of cunts, shit and anything remotely related to a phallus. Of course I responded but it was one of those moments when you just wanted to walk a dick comment off since you were merely expressing your genuine concern over some friends and how it seemed everything at that moment was going to hell. Shit, I’m no economist but if you see an odd number of people getting canned, you tend to worry and react by thinking, hey maybe things are kind of fucked up and I should be concerned. But no, someone insisted that ducking and rolling were sufficient remedies for a nuclear blast and that I should bow to all the research and empirical evidence found on publications and pie charts and polls and interviews.

So now that the NY Times, Yahoo, CNN, NBC, MSN and pretty much anything else with three or four letters that spreads the news has had a say in how fucked we are financially, can we admit we have a problem and that it might, sorry, will creep into our day to day lives? As if that weren’t enough we have the spectacle known as the political merry go round giving some extra spins but the bar is going to be giving last calls in a couple of weeks time and I see a bunch of things that are rather unsettling to say the least.

Two wars, a fucked up economy, a real estate sector in bad state and budget cuts across the board for anyone working in our fine industry. Automobiles are not selling like hot cakes, petro is still expensive as fuck and I see companies losing one or two accounts and being on the brink of having to shut down. I see all agency jackals sharpening their talons and looking to ailing agencies to see where they can feed on immediately to survive or who knows, maybe even thrive.

So where does that leave your average ad people? Settling or at least that’s what your employer wants you to believe.

“Things are harsh out there.”
“Think twice before resigning because there aren’t many jobs out there.”

Isn’t it cute how employers make it seem like they’re doing you a favor by keeping you on the payroll even though you’re actually ensuring them about 20 times what you earn… probably more?

“The economy is bad, that’s why we can’t give you a raise.”

Yeah, yeah. I totally understand; that’s exactly why you bought a new Porsche, because the economy is so fucked up. Oh and the new house and home improvements that probably total what your house is worth, that’s also preparing for when the economy gets real bad so they can sell the house and survive. Don’t mind the Dolce either, that’s just to keep appearances up for the client so they see we’re doing well, the Rolex too.

So what do I think? That things are bad? Yeah. That things could be worse? Of course. That the economy is shit? Yup. But that there’s still people making money and just don’t know how to be a smidge fair and rather than be fair with their employees, they milk them for all they’re worth until they quit because it’d cost too much to want to keep em? You bet your ass.

Face it, you are probably underpaid and overworked, or at the very least you feel this way. Oh, you also probably feel like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest and while you warm up you see some of your AE’s winning the Gold in the ass kissing contest that goes right before your event. You might even feel like some people do nothing but antagonize you with comments and whining and shit you really don’t need past 8 PM. You dream with work and problems and work. You’re probably stressed from the minute you step into the office. You hate your boss, your supervisor and the people that by default form your team since personal choice would probably wipe the slate 80% clean. And through all of this, you are constantly asked to settle, to compromise, to let one slide, to take one for the team etc, etc, et-fucking-cetera.

Well I have a suggestion and an option, look through the classifieds, make calls, hire a head hunter, strive to a better work place, call people on their bullshit, don’t always work late and when someone threatens to fire you, threaten them back with the law. Start logging your work hours, send yourself an email with a screenshot or evidence of your late work hours. Don’t fucking settle, don’t take the shit from the boss you know is an asshole because even though the natural behavior of an asshole is to spew shit, please remember one little detail: you can always step aside.

Cheers

3 comments:

Eugen Suman said...

Oh boy! This only makes me happy I don't have those problems yet. Europe's economy is in a decent shape, we only stay late if we really, really have to and AE's are pretty cool. I hope this doesn't change too soon :))

Joker said...

I should definitely consider Europe. What do you think? Is there space in Euroland for a dejected hispanic Joker searching for an honest pay and decent AE's?

Eugen Suman said...

Definitely. If you've got big agency experience and a decent portfolio (one or two awards would seal the deal) you're going to find work anywhere. The language barrier doesn't exist, as English can be used anywhere. Except for France and Belgium, unfortunately.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...